{"id":147280,"date":"2026-02-27T12:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147280\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T12:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:43:41","slug":"drop-site-investigation-reveals-israeli-surveillance-and-security-system-installed-at-epstein-controlled-manhattan-apartment-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147280\/","title":{"rendered":"Drop Site investigation reveals Israeli surveillance and security system installed at Epstein-controlled Manhattan apartment building"},"content":{"rendered":"

An investigation by Drop Site News<\/a> published last week revealed that the Israeli government installed and maintained a security and surveillance system inside a Manhattan apartment building effectively controlled by Jeffrey Epstein. The system was installed after Epstein\u2019s 2008 conviction and maintained for years.<\/p>\n

Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 [Photo: US DOJ]<\/p>\n

Emails released in the last batch of Epstein files by the Department of Justice show that Israeli officials began installing security equipment in early 2016 at 301 East 66th Street. The building contains 200 units and \u201chas been home for years to young models, girlfriends, pilots and lawyers\u201d associated with Epstein, Business Insider reported on August 5, 2019, just days before Epstein\u2019s life ended inside New York\u2019s Metropolitan Correctional Center.<\/p>\n

The building itself was technically owned by a company tied to Epstein\u2019s brother, Mark Epstein, but court filings and property records show that Jeffrey Epstein exercised effective control over multiple units in the building. As previously reported by Business Insider<\/a> and documented in sworn depositions, apartments at 301 East 66th Street were used to house underage girls, associates and employees connected to Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking operation.<\/p>\n

The building was also where former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak frequently stayed while visiting Epstein. The emails uncovered by Drop Site show that officials from Israel\u2019s permanent mission to the United Nations coordinated directly with Epstein\u2019s staff to install alarms, window sensors and remote access controls at what was referred to in the email\u2019s as \u201cEhud\u2019s apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during a lecture at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. [AP Photo\/Charles Krupa]<\/p>\n

The emails show that Rafi Shlomo, then director of protective services at the Israeli mission to the United Nations and head of Barak\u2019s security detail, personally controlled access to the apartment. Shlomo even conducted background checks on cleaners at the building and coordinated the installation of security equipment.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Emails released by the DOJ show that Epstein personally approved the installation of the Israeli security system. \u201cJeffrey says he does not mind holes in the walls and this is all just fine!\u201d one assistant wrote during the coordination process.<\/p>\n

The implications of the Drop Site reporting are profound. By 2016, Jeffrey Epstein was not an obscure \u201cfinancier.\u201d He was a registered sex offender in Florida following his \u201csweetheart\u201d federal non-prosecution agreement. Court filings, sworn depositions and police reports had already linked apartments at the 66th Street building to underage girls and individuals accused of facilitating Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking operation. <\/p>\n

Business Insider documented that multiple units in the building were used to house young women, including foreign minors recruited through Jean-Luc Brunel\u2019s MC2 Models. Brunel, who also had an apartment inside the building, died in jail in France in February 2022, while awaiting trial on charges of rape of a minor over 15 and trafficking. Records show that several women later named as co-conspirators shared the address as well.<\/p>\n

Jean Luc Brunel in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

During this same period, Israeli state security officials were installing and managing surveillance equipment inside the building. Police were frequently present outside the property during certain visits.<\/p>\n

The building itself traces back to billionaire Les Wexner, Epstein\u2019s only publicly acknowledged client for decades, who transferred significant New York real estate assets to Mark Epstein in the early 1990s. Wexner famously granted Jeffrey Epstein sweeping power of attorney over his finances.<\/p>\n

Wexner has maintained that his relationship with Epstein was strictly professional. However, photographs and public records show a longstanding and close association, including joint appearances at social events.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Epstein, left, an unknown woman partially hidden by Epstein and turned away from the photographer, and Abigail and Les Wexner at an event.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post nor the major broadcast networks have reported on the Israeli government\u2019s installation of a state security system inside a building linked to Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking operations, even though Al Jazeera and other international outlets have picked up the story based on Drop Site\u2019s investigation<\/p>\n

This absence is part of a broader pattern in which corporate media has either dismissed or actively defended limits on transparency in the Epstein case. The corporate press has moved rapidly from dismissing scrutiny of the Epstein files as \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d to openly arguing that the public should never have seen the material at all. In a February 23 guest essay, the New York Times declared that \u201cthe Epstein files should never have been released,\u201d warning that those who \u201cwant to preserve\u201d the Justice Department\u2019s \u201ccoercive information-gathering tools\u201d should \u201cregret the dump of the Epstein files.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Transparency is dangerous not because the material is false, but because it weakens public confidence in the capitalist state and its \u201cjustice\u201d system. The concern is not the exposure of ruling class networks surrounding Epstein but the potential erosion of public trust in the police and the intelligence agencies that facilitated Epstein\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

The attempt by the corporate press to squash the files comes as Trump\u2019s Justice Department continues to obscure and remove images and documents that damage the administration. Files that were previously accessible through the Department of Justice\u2019s Epstein Transparency Act portal are now returning \u201cPage not found\u201d errors.<\/p>\n

The independent archivists at Jmail discovered one such file, listed in Dataset 9 as EFTA01230639. The image shows Jeffrey Epstein and at least three other men at an outdoor location, one of whom bears a striking resemblance to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. <\/p>\n

Jeffrey Epstein and a man believed to be Howard Lutnick (blue shirt).<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice has offered no explanation for the removal of this file or others like it from its publicly searchable archive.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Join the Socialist Equality Party! <\/p>\n

The Socialist Equality Party is organizing the working class in the fight for socialism: the reorganization of all of economic life to serve social needs, not private profit.<\/p>\n

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